Quick answer: Unity Animator trigger set during an active transition not consumed? Triggers queue until the current transition completes; if another state's transition consumes it, the original target is missed.
Player hits A then B in quick succession. Trigger 'B' lost because the 'A' transition was mid-flight.
Reset triggers on transition complete
State Behaviour OnStateExit: ResetTrigger on the consumed trigger. Subsequent SetTrigger hits a clean state.
Or use an input buffer
Track player input as a buffer; consume on state transitions. Decouples input timing from animator state.
Avoid back-to-back triggers
Combat games benefit from explicit combo systems rather than animator triggers. The animator is the renderer; logic is yours.
“Triggers are state-machine inputs. Their lifecycle is the state machine's.”
For action games, the animator should consume from a queue you own. Direct trigger setting is the bug source.